How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?

Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.

How much history does the pattern need?

Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning PvP Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.

Best hours to buy and sell

Pick a market and an item. Every hour of the day shows its typical price, lowest buyout and listings, and the page names the cheapest hours to buy, the dearest to sell, and what the gap is worth after the 5 percent cut.

On PvP Alliance EU, Skeletal Club is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 240% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/eu

1MarketEach house keeps its own hours.2WindowDays of scans the hours are averaged over.3ItemKept while you switch market or window; type another below.

Item

Best hours to buy

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 0.716 · typical 77s 33c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 CET · index 2.024 · typical 2g 53s 64c

Spread after the 5% cut

+240%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

Too early

Too early to trust: the thinnest hour has 1 day of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Skeletal Clubby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	2g	1g 99s	3	0.719	1
01:00	02:00	1g 21s 33c	1g 17s 33c	17	0.743	3
02:00	03:00	83s	77s	18	0.743	2
03:00	04:00	77s	70s	21	0.673	2
04:00	05:00	72s	65s 50c	37	0.732	2
05:00	06:00	1g 40s	1g 17s 50c	5	0.879	2
06:00	07:00	1g 4s 75c	1g 1s 50c	15	0.789	4
07:00	08:00	1g 4s 75c	1g 1s 75c	13	0.723	4
08:00	09:00	1g 2s 50c	1g 1s 50c	13	0.778	4
09:00	10:00	1g 2s	1g	15	0.793	4
10:00	11:00	1g 12s 67c	1g 10s	12	0.806	3
11:00	12:00	1g 96s 75c	1g 72s 25c	10	0.848	4
12:00	13:00	2g 52s 50c	2g 45s	9	0.950	2
13:00	14:00	1g 9s 73c	91s	15	0.804	3
14:00	15:00	2g 34s 67c	2g 28s 33c	9	1.105	3
15:00	16:00	2g 31s 50c	2g 20s 33c	11	1.088	3
16:00	17:00	2g 5s 25c	1g 71s	15	1.007	4
17:00	18:00	1g 5s	69s 50c	24	0.912	2
18:00	19:00	79s 50c	64s 50c	29	0.740	2
19:00	20:00	5g 59s 84c	57s	23	4.035	2
20:00	21:00	1g 21s 57c	67s 50c	31	1.296	2
21:00	22:00	99s	74s	38	0.686	1
22:00	23:00	99s 28c	74s	38	0.987	3
23:00	00:00	1g 15s	72s 50c	42	1.165	2

Under 1.000 is a cheap hour to buy; over 1.000 a good hour to sell. Days counts how many days that hour was scanned in the window. The same figures as JSON: /v1/timing/forever.pvp.alliance.eu/2256 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.985	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.052	4
02:00	03:00	1.049	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.039	1.030	3
05:00	06:00	1.060	0.801	2
06:00	07:00	1.024	0.876	5
07:00	08:00	1.037	0.820	5
08:00	09:00	1.021	0.886	5
09:00	10:00	1.003	0.942	5
10:00	11:00	1.069	0.754	5
11:00	12:00	0.989	0.900	4
12:00	13:00	0.983	0.872	2
13:00	14:00	0.988	0.988	3
14:00	15:00	0.986	1.010	3
15:00	16:00	0.978	1.064	3
16:00	17:00	0.969	1.090	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.115	3
18:00	19:00	0.960	1.155	2
19:00	20:00	0.990	1.040	3
20:00	21:00	0.954	1.160	2
21:00	22:00	0.964	1.073	1
22:00	23:00	0.953	1.150	3
23:00	00:00	0.999	1.092	3

Each hour is indexed against the 24 hours around it, item by item across the market's largest positions, then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. For the day-of-week pattern, see market structure.

▸How this is worked out

Every hourly price is divided by the same item's average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting over the month does not make one end of the day look dear. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest; the spread buys at the cheap window's lowest buyout and sells at the dear window's typical price less the cut. Forever's history restarts at launch, so a live market's pattern never includes beta scans.

Common questions

What is the best time of day to buy and sell Skeletal Club?: On PvP Alliance EU, Skeletal Club is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 240% after the 5 percent cut.
How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?: Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.
How much history does the pattern need?: Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning PvP Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.